Study 4 – Ecclesiastes by Neville Clark
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This morning we return to Solomon’s quest for the greatest good in the book of Ecclesiastes. Over the past few weeks, you will recall, we have walked with Solomon as he has pursued his quest by various means by personal experience in Chs 1 and 2 and by general observation in Chs 3 to 6 of the book of Ecclesiastes, and now we are at that stage in the book where Solomon begins to reflect on all that he has found.
It is quite a landmark division between the end of Ch 6 and the start of Ch 7 in many ways. This, of course, is the start of the next great section, the final great section of the book of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon now pursues his quest by mature reflection. He is going to start to digest all the information he has accumulated in the previous six chapters, by experience, by observation, and make deductions from that information about things which are beneficial in this life, things which are not beneficial and how he might further his quest for satisfaction, for ultimate satisfaction, and for the greatest good. Now Chapter 7 is not just the beginning of the next phase, however; it is the beginning of the next phase, but not just the beginning, because you may have noticed as we read through this chapter, the appearance of the words “thy,” “thou,” “thou,” “thyself,” which, of course, tells you that this is another of the direct exhortations sections.
You will remember the first seven or eight verses of Ch 5 were a section of direct exhortation conspicuous by the use of “thee” and “thy,” the second person, whereas everywhere else in the book of Ecclesiastes we’ve got the third person, or the first person. But here we have Solomon in this chapter speaking to the ecclesia about observations for ecclesial life, to the saints, and he uses, v 9 “be not hasty in thy spirit,” v 10, “say not thou what is the cause,” v 16, “be not righteous over much neither make thyself over wise, why should thou destroy thyself.” See, “thee” and “thou” conspicuous by their occurrence through here.
The other factor of course, is that in this chapter we don’t have the phrase “under the sun,” that phrase that occurs all the way through the book of Ecclesiastes, except in the direct exhortation sections. What you have is the very opposite in v 11, “Wisdom is good with an inheritance and by it there is profit to them that see the sun,” that “see the sun,” that is those who can see a purpose in the apparently meaningless issues of this life, because they realise there is more to life than just what they might see going on about them. Those who “see the sun,” rather than those that are, as you will see at Ch 8:9, those that are “under the sun.”
This morning we are going to consider just the first twelve verses, really of Ecc Ch 7, because this is a section that Solomon describes things that are “better,” and the word “better” occurs all the way through this section, in fact, the lead in to Ch 7:1 is in Ch 6:12. He’s built the position, really, by which he can now begin to talk about what is “better” and what is “worse,” make deductions about what he has seen, because in Ch 6 of Ecc and V 12, he says, “who knoweth what is good for man in this life.” And the word “good” in Ecc 6:12 is the word ‘tov,’ which means ‘good’ in the widest possible sense, and so you will find it translated ‘pleasant,’ or ‘favorable’ or ‘precious,’ or in Ecc Ch 7, “better,” “better,” “who knows,” he says, “what is better for man in this life?” And that is the introduction in Ch 6:12 to what he is now going to say in Ch 7, and you might have noticed as we read Ch 7:1 “a good name is better,” in fact, the word ‘good” in Ch 7:1 and the word ‘better’ are the same, it is ‘tov’ both times, a “better name is better than precious ointment.” V 2 “it is better to go to the house of mourning.” V 3 “sorrow is better than laughter,” V 5 “it is better to hear the rebuke of wise men,” and so on, there are seven or eight better things in these first twelve verses of Eccl Ch 7 which Solomon particularly draws our attention to as those in the ecclesia. In fact this whole section, this whole first dozen verses really is poetic in the the Hebrew in the original language, it is a section of poetry. Whenever he makes his contrast between one thing that is ‘better’ against a thing which is ‘inferior’ the word ‘better’ occurs first in the verse. For example, if you were to get out an inter-linear version, you would see in v 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, the word ‘better’ appears first in the Hebrew in all of those verses. And in addition to that, there is some rhyming in the Hebrew language which occurs through here. So for example in V 1, he says “a good name is better than precious ointment.” The Hebrew word for name is the word ‘Shem,’ the Hebrew name for ‘ointment’ is the Hebrew word ‘Shemem.’ So you can see he is making a play upon words and that occurs a number of times through this section in a sort of poetic manner, not quite like English poetry, but you can appreciate the point, he is taking certain, I suppose, liberties with the language as he writes these things to make his point.
What Solomon does in this section, is of course, to qualify some of the comments that he has been making previously. Ch 6 for example, Chs 5 and 6, he considered wealth, that prosperity and riches aren’t always good, they might be a blessing of God but if you participate with them you will never ever be satisfied because as we said the other night, lust can only be fed, it can never be satiated. The more you get the more you want, so riches, though they might be a blessing, aren’t unmixed good, but when you come to Ch 7 he points out the contrast, that adversity is not always bad. Adversity that you might believe to be the chastening of God is not always bad, though we don’t look for it, we might not enjoy it when it comes, it does develop character that really couldn’t be developed any other way.
Well lets look at it then, Ch 7:1. “A good name is better than precious ointment,” he says. The precious ointment that he speaks about generally was olive oil, which was perfumed by being boiled together with other ingredients, so they would thicken and they would give it an aroma by boiling olive oil with myrrh or cassia, one of those sorts of things to give it a fragrance. In Bible times the ointment was used for anointing, prophets, priests, kings, any form of anointing or consecration. So you read in Psa 133:2 of the precious ointment upon the head, running down Aaron’s beard, that’s the ointment that we are talking about here, this precious ointment, we read of here.
Generally these ointments were stored in alabaster boxes, alabaster jars, that would keep them pure and stop them degrading, to the extent, that after a number of years these ointments actually improved with age. They became more fragrant with age and became very, very valuable. You could get alabaster jars of ointment that were worth tens of thousands of dollars in today’s money, and he says here that a good name is better than that, a good name, of course meaning, a good reputation; by imputation, a good reputation, I suppose, has a fragrance even more pervasive than good perfume, and in Song of Sol 1:3 he says, that the bride says to the groom, “Thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee, “ you see. A good name really is a like good ointment, or in this case better than good ointment.
There is, of course, a classic illustration of this verse in Scripture, which, if you haven’t got it in your margin, you really ought to have, it is Matt 26, between vv 6 and 13 because there was a time of course near the Lord’s death in the house of Bethany where Mary took an alabaster box of very, very precious ointment, and she poured it on the Lord’s head as he sat at the table, and there was a dispute amongst those disciples, because that ointment was worth a lot of money, “This could have been sold,” they said, “for 300 pence and given to the poor.” In one of the parables in Matthew, the parable of the labourers, he described the fact that the labourers worked for a penny a day, so 300 pence would be something like a year’s wages, 20,000 or 30,000 dollars in today’s money, and she poured it out in a few minutes on the Lord’s head as he sat at the table. There was a fuss and Jesus turned to the disciples and said, in Matt 26:13, “I say unto you, wheresoever the gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.“ A good name is better than precious ointment.” And for 2,000 years brothers and sisters, her example, the example of Mary in that little house has been an inspiration to believers, to give that extra little bit of extra service to the Truth, at whatever cost. Interesting, you know, when you come to the John record of the house of Bethany and John Ch 12, you find that it was Judas who began that dispute amongst the disciples. He thought it should be given to the poor because he kept the bag and he took some of what went into the bag, and therefore he saw a certain commission disappearing as she poured that ointment out, not because he cared for the poor, because he was a thief. He despised the use of the ointment and therefore in John 17:12, he also got himself a name, “The son of Perdition,” immortalised for 2,000 years, in the sight of all believers, “The son of perdition,” because he despised the ointment.
Well, Solomon goes on in V 1 and he says, not only is a good name better than precious ointment, but, and the English doesn’t capture it here, but it ought to be “better the day of death than the day of one’s birth,” the word ‘better’ occurs again in the verse here, in between the word “and” and the word “the,” “better the day of death than the day of one’s birth,” and you might look at that statement and say ‘Well how can that possibly be?’ What does Solomon mean when he says, “better is the day of your death than the day of your birth,” when he goes on for example to Ch 9:4 of Ecclesiastes, that a “living dog is better than a dead lion,” how can death be better than birth if a dog is better than a dead lion. You’ve got to understand the second statement here in V 1 in the context of the first. For a believer, when we die, really, it is the closure of a lifetime of character development isn’t it? Our death marks the final chapter in a life of character development, and we die, God Willing with a better character than we were born with. There is an improvement in our life, we die with a better character than we were born with, and therefore in Rev 4:13, John says, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them.” “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” And Rev 3:5, of course, “He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot his name from the book of Life,” and there’s your answer isn’t it? Why are the dead more blessed than the living in the same way that a good name is better than precious ointment? Because the dead in the Lord have a name, don’t they? it is in the book, it is better than precious ointment, that is a very, very precious book, and that name will exist long after the last trace of that ointment is gone.
So when we talk about having a good reputation, brothers and sisters, it is really a reputation before God that is the crucial thing, but of course, if we are going to be effective in ecclesial life, we can’t ignore the reputation we might also have before man. If you just come across to Ch 10:1, we’ve got his ointment mentioned again in the context of our reputation. Solomon says, “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary, or the chemist, to send forth a stinking savour, so does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.” And which of us hasn’t fallen in that trap. One ill-advised comment, one ill-advised conduct can discredit years of otherwise consistent behaviour, can’t it. And Solomon knew this, personally, in his life, didn’t he? because when he was old, he did divert from what had originally had been straight and narrow and all the wisdom that he was privy to, all the wisdom for which he was esteemed for was minimised in the eyes of people because his conduct was not consistent. So whilst our reputation with God is of paramount importance, we can not ignore the reputation we might have with our fellows, particularly in the ecclesia of God.
V 2, Ecc 7:2, “It is better to go to the house of morning than to go to the house of feasting, because that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart.” And here is the point about adversity not always being bad, you’ve got the picture here, you see, of two houses in the same street. At one house we’ve got ‘mourning’ and at the other house we’ve got ‘feasting.’ One house is a funeral, the other house is a wedding. In OT times, funerals and weddings both went for seven days. You will read in Jdg 14:12 when Samson married this young girl of Timnath, he stayed there for seven days. And you’ll read in Gen 50:10 that when Jacob died Joseph and the family mourned for him for seven days. So weddings and funerals, the entire ceremony took seven days, and you have a choice in your street, perhaps, as to which one you might go to. Naturally speaking, of course, we’d prefer to go to the wedding, whereas in the nature of our probation, the house of mourning, in fact, might well be the most beneficial house to attend, because Psa 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” You see the sobriety of the funeral is more calculated to impress upon our minds the frailty of life, more than any possible merry making of a wedding. “The living,” he says, “will lay it to his heart,” ironic I suppose, what we are saying is that death makes you think about life, but it does, doesn’t it, because every funeral we might go to really is in anticipation of our own, which is not true of a wedding, because we might not get married, you see? Death makes you think about life, the next funeral could be your’s.
And in the same way in V 3 he goes on, “Sorrow is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better.” Now the word ‘better’ there is not the same word ‘better,’ it means ‘right,’ the heart is made ‘right’ or ‘improved.’ Not that laughter is bad, we have already found in Ecc 3:4, There is a time to weep, there is a time to laugh.” Laughter is not bad, but this is a contrast you see being painted here, in V 3 between the sobriety of mind, and I suppose, vacant hilarity. And Solomon is concerned to overturn the general bias of human nature that would avoid sorrow at almost any cost, to avoid any sort hurt any sort of anguish at almost any cost. And this is what the world is like, of course, the world in which we live. This is what Hollywood is all about, escape, ‘don’t worry, don’t suffer any pain, it will all go away, go travelling, join a club of some kind, buy something, distract yourself in some way so that you don’t have to confront issues which might upset you.’ And so he says in v 4 “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” Why? Well because in Prov 1:22, “Fools hate knowledge.” “Fools hate knowledge.” They are blind to spiritual issues and they are well-content to remain that way, whereas when Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Cor 7:9-10, he said, “I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance, for Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” Now what is “Godly sorrow?” well, Godly sorrow is sorrow that changes your character, “that works repentance,” he says, “unto salvation.” What is the sorrow of the world? regret, remorse, no change. That was the sorrow of Judas, you read in Matt 27. He regretted the fact that the Lord died, he did not change his basic character, whereas the Apostle Paul on the Damascus road, absolutely changed his basic character, a fundamental difference between the sorrow of the saints and the sorrow of the world. “Godly sorrow” he says, “works repentance unto salvation. “ Ecc 7:5 he says, “Furthermore, it is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for man to hear the song of fools.” Now this is a serious verse, because the rebuke that is being spoken of here is a serious or a grave warning. This is not just a tap on the shoulder. The Bible speaks volumes about this Prov 29:1, “He that being often reproved and hardens his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.” If you do not accept reproof it will be your destruction, he says. Prov 27:6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” None of us likes to be censured, it is unpleasant, but sometimes it is essential, isn’t it, sometimes it is essential. He talks here about “the wounds of a friend,” in Prov 20, this is not just a tap on the shoulder, this is when the friend comes to you and says, ‘Brother, you are wrong, you must change, this is not acceptable,’ brother, sister, it doesn’t matter, this is and earnest appeal by a dear friend.
You see, there are all different kinds of friends in the Bible, there is another kind of friend who says, ‘don’t tell on me and I won’t tell on you. God doesn’t expect this from you, God doesn’t expect that, it will be all right, the ecclesia won’t mind.’ That kind of friend is an enemy and a fool, he says in Proverbs. Real friends, real friends, make an effort to correct error, so you find in Prov 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeners the countenance of his friend,”and you can’t sharpen anything without pressure, nothing gets sharpened without pressure. In Psa 141:5 the Psalmist says, “Let the righteous smite me, it shall be kindness. Let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oil and my head shall not refuse it,” remarkable, Psa 141:5. “Let the righteous smite me,” you know the greatest work of a friend in the Bible I believe? 2 Sam 12. What did he say? “Thou art the man.” “Thou art the man.” Nathan to David after the sin of Bathsheba, drastically and dramatically saved David’s life, but what a wound it was, a scar on his life practically for the rest of his life, he could never bring up his children the same after that.
But the song of fools? Well, here it is in Ecc 7: 6, it is like the crackling of thorns under a pot “So is the laughter of fools, this is also vanity,” he says. And more poetry here, because in the Hebrew the word “pot” rhymes with the “thorns.” In the Hebrew the word ‘pot’ is the word ‘siyr’ and the word ‘thorns’ is the word ‘siyrah’ or ‘siyren’. Moffat has tried to capture the rhythm as he often does, “the laugher of fools is like nettles crackling under the kettles.” I suppose something like what the Hebrew would read, “the laughter of fools is like the nettles crackling under the kettles.” What’s the point? The point is this, in eastern countries, people use charcoal to cook with. They put charcoal under their fire, they would heat it up and it gave a lot of heat for a long time with charcoal. To rely on the advice of a fool, he says, is a bit like trying to boil the cauldron with dry thorns. Put them on the fire, they blaze up like tinder, they crackle, they spark, they blow sparks all across the floor and then they are gone before even the heat touches the pot. A great show, ‘vanity,’ he says, ‘utterly vain, pointless, a meaningless use of resources, just an irritation without substance,’ that’s what fools are like. But even adversity has its limits, even adversity, which might be beneficial for us, has its limits, because V 7 goes on “Surely oppression makes a wise man mad and a gift destroys the heart.” You see there are some trials that come upon us which can, in fact, reverse a life of development. The NIV for V 7 says it like this, “Extortion turns the wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.” Continual oppression, you see, even of a wise man, will wear down a wise man. And when he sees the wicked getting away with things which he in good conscience would not participate in, or can’t get away with, because of his conscience, he of course, is tempted to follow. Why would he endure this suffering that no one else is enduring, forgetting that in his case, God sees him, God watches him.
Now we’ve talked about the development of the heart, because at the end of V2 it says that “the living will lay it to his heart,” V 3, he says, “The heart is made better.” In V4, he goes on, and he says, “the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning.” Here we have the degradation of the heart. A ‘gift,’ or a ‘bribe’ as it is, ‘destroys the heart of this wise man.’ Taking bribes blinds you to a Godly interpretation of circumstances. You are forced to interpret circumstances in the same way as the person who bribes you and you are veiled therefore you have got to filter everything. You become complicated, tempted to forget the principles of the Truth.
We are comforted by the words of 1 Cor 10:13. “God will not tempt us beyond what we are able but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it.” And we do pray that as wise brothers and sisters, that that may always be the case even if the obvious way of escape is as Paul says, “to flee the problem.” Well, vv 8,9 and 10, are all Proverbs concerning patience versus rashness, about making a patient or an informed decisions versus a rash or a proud decision. In V 8 he says, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Better is the end of a thing,” the word ‘thing’ here is the word ‘word.’ Better is the end of the argument than the beginning better is the end of the matter than the beginning. The point you see is ‘see the issue through before you draw a conclusion.’ Here the whole argument, hear both sides of the story. And you know how easy it is to jump to conclusions, brothers and sisters, Prov 18:17 is an excellent quotation. “He that is first in is own cause seemeth just, but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him. “ Prov 18:71. Here’s the NIV. “The first to present his case seems right” until another comes forward and questions him. And if you only ever heard half the story you would be grossly misaligned in your decision-making wouldn’t you? But that is true of everything in life, the first Bible commentary that you read sounds very plausible until another one questions it, and it is the tension there that often bears the truth. Do your homework, don’t let impatience make your decisions for you. It might take longer, but it is better, it is more secure, you will get a better answer, especially if the issue involves some transgression. V 9 “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger” he says, “rests in the bosom of fools,” Prov 14:29, Many, many proverbs on the subject of anger. Prov 14:29 says, “he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalted folly.” Why? Because Jas 1:20 tells us that “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” “Let every man,” he says in the previous chapter of James, ”Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.” The classic example, David is about to kill Nabal when he is met on the road by Abigail, you know the story, it is in 1 Sam 25, and do you know what she said to him? “It shall come to pass,” she said, ‘You can kill him, you’ve got an army, it’s just him and his servants, you will wipe them off the face of the earth,’ and that is exactly what David intended to do, and she is down on her hands and knees before him making obeisance to him, and she says, ‘Look David it will come to pass that God will do you good and he will make you the king, as he has promised.’ This of course, being when David is running around the wilderness from Saul. Here is a woman who believes he is going to be King. She knew the promises, and she says, ‘If you kill him this will be a grief unto you, because you have shed blood causeless. You’ve avenged yourself, you will live to regret the day, you take my foolish husband’s head off.’ And he turned to her, put his sword back in, stopped these wild men behind him, ‘Blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thee.” Remarkable words, from a remarkable woman, and poured cold water on a very angry man.
And here is another form of impatience, Ecc 7:10. “Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this,” this was the problem with ‘the good old days.’ You know, the problem with the good old days, do you know what the big problem with ‘the good old days,’ is? They are invariably based on bad old memories. The ‘good old days’ are never as good as they are pretended to be. Nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia of course, but when nostalgia hinders the progress of the present work, it is a problem. Every age has its difficulties, every age has its opportunities, and you can’t face the difficulties of this age by pining for an age gone by, it just doesn’t help. Another classic illustration is in Ch 3:12, 40,000 people came back from Babylon. They came back to Jerusalem, they built an altar, the next year they built a Temple, or at least they laid the foundation of the Temple, and in v 12 of Ezra Ch 3, they stopped the work, they had a great celebration, like they used to in Solomon’s day, blew trumpets, sang the same Psalms because they had laid a concrete foundation, or a stone foundation, but in the midst the jubilation there were tears of anguish from the old men, because it wasn’t as good as it was in Solomon’s day. It just wasn’t going to be as good a Temple as what it was in Solomon’s day because of course it was a day of small things, they didn’t have the money, they didn’t have the resources they had in Solomon’s day. And the old men cried when the young men rejoiced, until an old prophet stood up in Hag Ch 2. “How many of you saw this house in its former glory” he says, “and how do you see it now, is it a thing as nothing in your eyes?” And he really hopped into them this Haggai, and he was an old prophet, he had been there in Solomon’s day. “Be strong ye people of the land,” he said, “for I am with you, says Yahweh,” that was his answer. “God is with you,” he said, and that’s the issue, ‘Forget about what it was like yesterday, Is Yahweh with us or not?’ The answer is ‘Yes, on with the work, whatever size the Temple might be.’
And Solomon concludes in Vv 11-12 with this section with the subject of wisdom. “Wisdom is good,” ‘better,’ it is the word ‘better,’ “Wisdom is better with an inheritance and by it there is profit for them that see the sun, for wisdom is a defence, and money” the ‘money’ here of course is the ‘inheritance’ of V 11, “wisdom is a defence” and your financial inheritance is a defence, “but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it,” and money does not.” You just can’t take it with you. You just can’t take it with you. Why is wisdom better than an inheritance? Well you can look at it, it is in Prov 3 :14. He says, “The merchandise of wisdom is better than silver and better than fine gold,” because, Prov 3:17, “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her.” Wisdom offers something that riches just cannot offer. You want to see the real contrast between wisdom and money? We’ve looked at it once before, Ecc 2:26, but we haven’t looked at it quite like this. Ecc 2:26, look what he says, “For God giveth to man that which is better in his sight, wisdom, knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he giveth travail to gather up and to heap up riches, that he may give to him that is better before God.” All the wealth that has been accumulated by the millionaires of this world today will be given to the saints in the future. It really isn’t our job to stack up coins now. It is all being done for us, you see, who are those who will receive the ‘better’ from God.
And Solomon reaches the climax really of his little exhortation section here. This is not the end of the exhortation section, but it is the climax of this portion of it, this phase of it, in Ch 7:12 speaking of wisdom. The thing of course, that he had more himself, he had more than any of these other virtues which he has mentioned in these previous verses, but he was troubled. He’s listed all of these things, “sorrow better than mourning,” “a name better than ointment,” “wisdom better than folly,” all of these things he’s mentioned and he’s got to this climax about wisdom being better than any inheritance, but he hasn’t got to the end, he’s upset because there is something still missing. Look at V 19, “Wisdom,” he says, “strengthened the wise more than ten mighty men who are in a city,” it is enormously powerful, it is a defence like there is no defence, but “there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good and sinneth not.” Wisdom is wonderful, wisdom is enormously powerful, but who can live it, who can do it, but who can match the calibre of lifestyle that wisdom demands? You know, in his famous prayer in 1 Kgs Ch 8 when he dedicated the Temple and he had animals on the altar and he prayed a long prayer to God before all the people in 1 Kgs 8 and in V 46 of that chapter he said, “There is no man that sinneth not.” In the early days after he had built the Temple he was very, very aware of that and in v 38 of that chapter, he said, “Every man possesses the plague of his own heart,” that’s what he calls it, 1 Kgs 8:38, “the plague of his own heart.” And so now what he commences in this chapter in v. 25 is an intensive investigation, you look at the intensity of Ch 7:35 of Ecclesiastes. “I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek, the reason, and to know.” Look how hard he is trying, “I applied my heart to know, and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of folly even of foolishness and madness,” why have we got the best answers in the world, but nobody does them? This is illogical, this is utterly foolish, why aren’t we living the wisdom we know?
And from v 25 to the end of the chapter, you’ve got an enormous personal confession, now from Solomon about what he has experienced in his own life. You can tell that you see in V 25, he’s says, ‘Look I am going to search this, know that, seek this, reason this, understand this.’ V 26 he says “I find,” V 27, “Behold I have found,” V 28 “which my soul seeketh I find not,” again in that verse “Have I found,” the last words, “I have not found,” V 29, “Lo this have I found,” now he is examining things, and he is looking everywhere, and he is turning over every stone, to find the answer to this problem. He’s got to wisdom which is the pinnacle of what this life can offer, short of mortality, but there is a problem, we haven’t solved sin. Sin is still more powerful than wisdom if you allow it to be. A wise man can still be rolled over by sin, as we found in Ch 7:7. What do we do? “I applied my heart to know it,” he says, but you look at V 25, you’ve got this little 3, “I applied my heart to know,” the margin says “I and my heart compassed,” ‘I went round and round in circles. I kept asking myself the same question, and back came the same answer. I want to know the answer,’ round and round he goes. ‘One thing,’ he says, ‘one thing, I can understand everything else, why I am the wisest man walking on the face of the earth, but I can’t understand sin, I can’t understand why I sin?’ And now he makes some deeply personal comments, V 26, “I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands, whoso please God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her,” and didn’t he know that? Well, didn’t he know that? He escaped, I believe, in the nick of time by the skin of his teeth. “Behold this have I found,” saith the Preacher counting one by one to find out the account, looking through the issues one at a time, round and round in circles, adding up the problem, which my soul seeketh but I find not, one man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found, and you will notice that the margins I believe is correct in the way it interprets this. Where he says here “a woman among all those,” you have a little note if your Bible is like mine, and a reference on that ‘q’ to 1 Kgs 11:3, You see, he had 1,000 wives and he looked amongst those 1,000 wives for a woman of the kind of calibre he has just described in the first twelve verses of this chapter, and he couldn’t find one and no surprise, because the Sarah’s, and the Hannah’s, and the Ruth’s were not amongst that 1,000 were they? These were trophies, these were political wives, these were wives he married because they looked nice, every country, every race, every religion, many of them not even in the Truth, he couldn’t find of the 1,000 wives that Solomon had, he couldn’t find one of any virtue, and no surprise. But he said, that’s one issue, even amongst mankind, male kind, you might find one amongst 1,000 who remotely lives the calibre of life that these verses demand. And there is a problem, because as much wisdom as we have, he says, mankind is seldom anything like what he ought to be. V29, “This only have I found, God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.” It is not God’s fault, it’s not God’s fault, brothers and sisters, you can see what Solomon is looking for, can’t you. You can see what he is looking for, he’s looking for the next better thing. He has got to the best thing he can name and it is wisdom and he is looking for something better than wisdom, because wisdom doesn’t help us ultimately, because we can’t live it, we can’t put these things into practice, sin takes over, mankind’s got a problem, and even among the best men in his kingdom, he is scarcely rewarded with one among a thousand, he says. And he is looking for this answer, round and round, looking for the answer, but the phrase “one among a thousand,” is a giveaway because that is a phrase which is used of redemption. In Job 9:3, Job says that “man can no answer God, one among a thousand.” In Job 33:23, Job says, “is there one among a thousand that can show unto man God’s uprightness?” This is language which is used in the wisdom books of Scripture for the subject of redemption, you see, Solomon is looking for the better man. He is hunting here, high and low, round and round, overturning every stone, looking for the “better man,” and he can’t find him, he can’t find him, because there is none like that among men. No man lives these things like he should, but, you know, there is an answer, you come across to the Song of Solomon, Ch 5. Solomon did know of this answer. It is likely that he wrote the Song of Solomon before he wrote Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes was the book that he wrote late in his life. Song of Solomon, it is likely he wrote it appears early in his life, because he is talking of the subject of marriage. But as you would be aware, brothers and sisters, this is a great type and the bridegroom of this book is none other in type of the Lord Jesus Christ and look at Ch 5:10. “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.” But it is not ‘ten thousand,’ the word ‘thousand’ here is not the same word ‘thousand,’ the word ‘ten’ does not mean ‘ten’, this means myriads, sometimes translated ‘ten thousand times ten thousand.’ “My bridegroom is the chiefest among myriads.” He is the chiefest among everyone, there is no man like that bridegroom. And what do you know about that bridegroom, brothers and sisters? Well you know he has got a good name, don’t you? Because he’s got a name above every name. You know that he regards his death greater than his birth because the greatest conquest in the history of the world was made at his death. You know that he values mourning more than feasting, because the greatest feast he ever celebrated was the commemoration of his death. You know that he values sorrow more than laughter. Twice, in Scripture, we read of the Lord Jesus Christ weeping, you won’t read of him laughing anywhere in Scripture. You know that he regards wisdom more than folly. “Morning by morning” it tells us in the prophets “he opened his ear to his father, never, ever listened to the counsel of fools.” You know that he regards the end more than the beginning because what were his last mortal words? John 19:30, “It is finished,” “It is finished.” And finally, wisdom more than money, “wisdom more than an inheritance.” He was born to be a king, of course, he never ever took the throne, never ever took the throne, instead, he disseminated wisdom like it has never ever been shown before, and he was furious with man’s refusal to accept that wisdom. They asked him for a sign, you know, in Matt 12, and what was the answer when they asked him for a sign? “The Queen of the South, the Queen of the South will rise up in judgment of this generation, for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, he said, a greater than Solomon is here.” Wisdom far, far transcended the value of an inheritance. And if there could have been any doubt whatsoever as to his calibre, the apostle Paul obliterates it when he comments on the status of Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Hebrews. Do you know what he says, do you know what the Apostle says, the great theme all way through Hebrews that Paul makes the Lord Jesus Christ, “better than angels,” “possessing a better priesthood,” “offering a better hope,” “confirming a better covenant,” “making better promises,” “offering a better sacrifice,” “providing a better reward,” “gave a better resurrection,” of all those that seek him in truth. And as the apostle concludes the catalog of the faithful in Heb 11, which I might add, includes women, he says in Heb 11:4, “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us, should not be made perfect.”
Transcript by Fay Berry 2017
